As the snow melted, Edinburgh UCU members returned to the picket line this week for the second week of strike action. I cancelled three hours of classes and picketed with my colleagues in History, Classics, and Archaeology on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It has been amazing to see the solidarity of my colleagues on the picket line, and the support from the student community and wider community of the city of Edinburgh.

Picketing outside HCA on Teviot Place, Monday 5 March

Picketing outside HCA on Teviot Place, Monday 5 March

On Thursday 8 March there was the All-Scotland UCU Rally outside Scottish Parliament. We were joined by UCU members from universities across Scotland, including Glasgow, Dundee, Strathclyde, St Andrews, and Heriot-Watt. The best speech by far was definitely the one given by the new Rector of the University of Edinburgh, Ann Henderson.

One good thing coming out of the current spotlight on university and college teaching is the publicity of the issue of casualisation in the sector. Hope is that the issue of casualisation and early career precarity can be tackled anew after the pensions dispute is won.

As there was no teaching last week, Edinburgh joins the UCU industrial action against cuts to USS pensions today.

Despite the freezing temperatures and flurries of snow, hundreds gathered in Bristo Square for an opening rally in support of the strike action. We were joined in solidarity by representatives from other UCU branches in Scotland - Glasgow, Stirling, and QMU - as well as by Labour councillors.

Over the next few weeks, industrial action will take place at over 60 universities across the UK in a bid to protect our pensions. The average UCU member will see their pension fall by £10,000 a year under the new pension proposals. In addition, this dispute is part of the wider issue of casualisation and the attack on security of employment in higher education. My statement about my intentions both to strike and take action short of a strike as a teacher and a member of the UCU is available here.

We might see calls for compensation and reimbursement as an addition to the disruption of the university which is the intended outcome of industrial action. As we withdraw our labour, students in return want to withdraw their payment for the tuition they won't receive.

However, they appear to be missing the point of strike action - it is a last resort disruption to the status quo running of the institution. We are withdrawing our labour because of untenable working conditions, constituted by threats to our security in work and in retirement. As much as some of the student posts in the change.org petition make claims to solidarity, others call us 'selfish' and ask why we are 'punishing' them. Industrial action is always a last resort, and a difficult decision for many, as discussed in this recent Pubs and Publications article. Many of us really do care about our students, but this industrial action is the only way we have left to make the point to the university.

In addition to this, the call for reimbursement is coded in consumer rights language. This is the result of the neoliberalisation of education - students think their education is a service or product that they pay for, rather than thinking of their education as contributing to their development as caring and critical citizens of the modern world. Back in 2000, Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades wrote that, in the modern neoliberal university, 'students are primarily seen as revenue producers'.¹ Today, these fee-paying students are internalising this attitude and identifying themselves as revenue producers, when their first response to strike action is to ask for their refund.

This is an incredibly neoliberal response to the strike action. The students' first thoughts should be to offer solidarity, not call for a refund. The very future of higher education is at stake, just as the future of mine and my colleagues' livelihoods are at stake.

Finally, their education over the coming weeks isn't truly cancelled anyway: it's merely moved from the classroom to the picket line.

Over the next few weeks, industrial action will take place at over 60 universities across the UK in a bid to protect our pensions. The average UCU member will see their pension fall by £10,000 a year under the new pension proposals. In addition, this dispute is part of the wider issue of casualisation and the attack on security of employment in higher education.

It is important for all union members who are able to contribute what they can to the strike action. For the duration of the strike, I will take action short of a strike. I will be on the picket line during the week beginning Monday 5th March.

All my support and solidarity goes to my colleagues in the union who are contributing what they can to the upcoming strike. To learn more about the strike, visit the UCU Strike for USS website.